With the first two generations
of BX motherboards come and gone, the winner among Intel BX based motherboards has almost
unanimously been declared to be the ABIT BH6. Boasting a popular 5/2/1 expansion
slot (PCI/ISA/AGP) configuration, as well as a low cost and a high performance/low
maintenance nature, the BH6 was hands down the ideal choice for most users.
Considering that the BH6 is the only motherboard which allows for manual manipulation of
the core voltage of a Pentium II or Celeron, the BH6 quickly became the ideal overclocking
platform for most users, especially Celeron owners. This recommendation holds strong
even if you aren't going to overclock your processor, however if you aren't going to
overclock your system you increase your options for a new motherboard by not excluding
those without the voltage configuration adjustment capabilities; and if you're willing to
try something bold and new, Epox has a new solution which puts a new twist on the term
"Intel BX Motherboard".

In the past, all Pentium II motherboards could be referred
to as either an Intel FX, LX or the newer Intel BX based motherboards. That will now
change as two familiar contenders make their late entries into the Slot-1 chipset market,
these two companies are Acer Labs Incorporated, known for their Socket-7 (Aladdin IV) and
Super7 chipsets (Aladdin V) and the more popular VIA Technologies also known best for
their Socket-7 (Apollo Series) and Super7 chipsets (Mobile Apollo Series). The first
to finish the race to release a non-Intel chipset for the Pentium II platform in this case
was VIA with their new Apollo Pro chipset. Although it may seem to be a new entry
into the market, the Apollo Pro's design has been around for quite a while, originally
intended for use with the Pentium Pro, VIA simply made minor modifications to the chipset
and added support for newer technologies such as SDRAM and the Accelerated Graphics Port
(AGP). It is this chipset that Epox's latest concoction, the P2-112A, was based
around, introducing yet another factor into the world of Slot-1 motherboards, chipset
manufacturer variations.

Starting off as just about any normal Slot-1 motherboard
with its layout, the P2-112A features the same 5/2/1 expansion slot configuration
(PCI/ISA/AGP) which brought incredible fame and fortune to ABIT with their BH6. The
inclusion of 5 PCI slots provides ample room for expansion in the future with Ethernet
cards, PCI Sound Cards, and secondary graphics accelerators among other things. The
VIA Apollo Pro chipset brings full AGP 2X support to the game therefore outfitting the
P2-112A with the increasingly popular AGP slot was no big of an ordeal. All slots
present on the board can accept full length cards, this was made possible by two factors:
the proper implementation of the ATX specification and the positioning of all front panel
connectors out of the path of all of the expansion slots.

The PCB (Printed Circuit Board) the P2-112A is built upon
is very well laid out as alluded to before with the expansion slot configuration, however
the design also allows for a few trademark Epox features to be included at no PCB real
estate cost to the user. Populated with electrolytic capacitors around the Pentium
II's Slot-1 interface, as well as the DIMM slots and peripheral expansion slots, the
stability of the board is well accounted for from an engineering sense. Common place
on virtually all Epox motherboards is the Easy Set Jumper Setting configuration which
allows you to configure the Front Side Bus Frequency and Clock Multiplier via a single
jumper for each setting bringing the board's setup down to a level of ease previously
thought impossible. The selectable FSB speeds include 66, 75, 83, 100, 103, 112, and
124MHz with a reserved setting, possibly for 133MHz.

The P2-112A boasts Epox's unique ability to
power on an ATX system via a keystroke combination on the keyboard instead of using the
power button on your case, this option can be enabled by a combination of a single jumper
and a BIOS setting.

The VIA Apollo Pro chipset also allows for
operation of the SDRAM clock at a 1/1 or 2/3 ratio in reference to the CPU FSB Clock.
This single jumper basically offers the same functionality as it did on
motherboards based on the VIA MVP3 chipset, while your FSB may be set at 100MHz+ your
memory clock will remain at or around 66MHz, breathing new life into your older SDRAM and
EDO DIMMs which may not be able to cope with higher FSB settings. This can
dramatically decrease the overall cost of your system if you have any DIMMs laying around.
The performance hit for running your SDRAM at 66MHz while your FSB is clocked at
100MHz is around 1 - 2%, and hardly noticeable.

Classic of all Epox motherboards, the P2-112A
doesn't skimp in terms of its documentation, especially in the explanation of the BIOS
settings. Two specific BIOS settings, Auto Detect DIMM/PCI Clk and Spread Spectrum
Modulated are designed to reduce electromagnetic interference (EMI) and result in
increased stability. Those two settings can be found on the newest Award BIOS
revisions on most motherboards.

As far as performance is concerned, the
P2-112A gives the ABIT BH6 a good run for its money as it consistently produced Winstone
scores on par with the BH6 as well as other BX based Pentium II mainboards.

Remember all of the problems the VIA MVP3
chipset had with its AGP port? Welcome back, the Apollo Pro brings you the same
hassles if not handled properly. The AnandTech test system running Windows 98 didn't
require any specific AGP or Bus Master drivers for proper operation, however Windows 95
users may find that without the VIA AGP GART drivers they'll be out of luck. The
board had no problems with a G200 or a TNT based AGP graphics accelerator which is a big
sigh of relief in comparison that the problems Super7 users had to face. This is
simply because you aren't using a non-Intel processor with the motherboard, which does
help tremendously in terms of conflicts especially with the earliest driver revisions of
the TNT boards.

Other than that, the lack of any voltage
adjustment features does set the P2-112A a bit behind in comparison the BH6 however Epox's
obvious efforts to reduce EMI could definitely help improve stability somewhat in
overclocked situations where EMI becomes a critical factor in stability.